All posts tagged winter training

I was optimistic today – trying to make spring come by sheer force of will. After all it was 67 degrees!

I went to Overpeck and rigged my boat. I am ready as soon as the ice breaks. Ice? At Overpeck? Has that ever happened? Nobody can remember it ever having frozen over before.

Well, it’s still socked in, but I bet it will break tomorrow with the rain as the water level rises. Then it will freeze again on Thursday night after the wind dies down, and then break for good this weekend. That’s my bet.

Come on Mother Nature, give us a break!

In the meantime, check out this video that was posted by CrossFit Rowing – looks like fun in a an extremely perverse way! Anybody from Canada – what is this type of rowing called? Surely not surfboat, although it’s similar? Iceboat? Polar rescue? Polar suicide? There’s a good idea here though – can coxswains use a paddle in the Head of the Charles?

During November Crossfit Ignite has programmed a weekly set of strength and conditioning workouts to let people get comfortable with the movements and push themselves to improve week over week. One of the WODs is perhaps the best rowing-specific strength workout I’ve ever done:

WOD: 4 super sets, with 1 min rest of

Back Squat x 8 – deep and solid, nuff said. Doing this week after week, I have almost equaled my 3-rep max for 8 reps, meaning a significant strength gain. With this many reps I also get a pretty good upper back workout, and my squat technique has improved dramatically.

Romanian Deadlift x8 – this is scary at first, because it is almost a straight-leg deadlift, but once I got used to it I found that I can actually handle more weight than I can squat. Hits the lower back and glutes hard.

10 min AMRAP (as many rounds as possible):

10 Single Leg Kettlebell Deadlift– 53/35 5R 5 L – done with a single kettlebell, alternating sides, to even out imbalances. This is a hugely effective lower back exercise.

10 Goblet Lunges (53/35) or Barbell Lunges 45# – this is a glute and quad ripper.

Even though this is only a 45-minute workout, I feel like I just did a 25K erg piece at drag factor 180, followed by a “Buns of Steel” video!